International Permafrost Association Country Reports

Japan

In January 1996, the Fourth Symposium on Joint Siberian Permafrost Studies Between Japan and Russia was held at Sapporo. At the meeting, attended by 60 participants, 30 papers were given dealing with the results of the previous summer's field program. In addition to papers, V.N. Konishchev, Moscow State University, visiting professor at the Institute of Low Temperature Science, presented a special report on the genesis and occurrence of the Edoma ice complex in Siberia. The proceedings of this meeting have been published and are available from the convener of the meeting, Masami Fukuda.

In summer 1996, three groups from Japan will conduct field studies in Siberia. The permafrost group, headed by M. Fukuda, will conduct field studies on the genesis of the Edoma ice complex on the New Siberian Islands with V.V. Kunistky and M.N. Grigoriev, Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Yakutsk. The biology group from Hokkaido University will conduct field work in the taiga and tundra regions of east Siberia, cooperating with the Yakutsk Biological Institute. A group from the Institute of Forest Research will also conduct joint field studies with the Yakutsk Biological Institute. Greenhouse gases over Siberia will be monitored by the Environmental Institute using charter aircraft to trace gas concentration in west and east Siberia.A new group, IGBP-NES (Northern Eurasian Study), is being established in Japan. In November 1995, an international meeting on IGBP-NES was held in Tsukuba, Japan. During the meeting, a transect study related to the carbon budget in Siberia was discussed. Two transect lines were recommended, one along the Lena River and another along the Yenisey. Following this recommendation, the new group of IGBP-NES Japan is to establish a concrete action plan in 1997. The convener of IGBP-NES Japan is Gen Inoue, Institute of Environment; E-mail: inouegen@ nies.go.jp.